Post-Thanksgiving haze

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I went down to Fayetteville to have dinner with my folks, and since no one wanted to cook, we ate at Piccadilly. Not the best Thanksgiving dinner I've ever had, but not the worst.

That evening, I went with my pal Cleo to see the movie Fair Game starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It's about the Valerie Plame scandal, where the Bush White House outed her as a CIA operative because they got pissed when her husband Joe Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times saying the administration manufactured a reason to go to war with Iraq. Naomi Watts is fantastic as Plame (Oscar nomination-worthy for sure) and the movie has the same kind of tension as All the President's Men. Great political thriller and a stirring reminder that Bush took us into an unnecessary war, which has led this country into the recession.

Friday was supposed to be spent writing the final chapters of the Conquering Venus sequel, but it turned into rewriting and then I got distracted by Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief on Turner Classic Movies – like you do. My plan to finish the complete first draft of the novel was overly ambitious, but I did put more time in on Saturday and Sunday, so it got a little further along and I'm happy with what I've written. Keeping my Dec. 31 goal is more realistic.

On Saturday, I met up with Cleo and BFF Karen to go see Burlesque. Yes, the critics have savaged it for being cliche and a hodgepodge of Cabaret and Showgirls, but I think they expected waaaay too much of this movie. We went into the cinema with no expectations and wound up loving it – cliches and all. The music is good, there's plenty of eye-candy and Cher is...well...Cher, which means she's fabulous. Definitely ignore the critics on this one and go see it. I've already bought a couple of the songs from the soundtrack on iTunes, including Cher's showstopper "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me." That song should be an Oscar-contender.

Sunday was a writing day, and I also sent off the revised poems for the Slow To Burn re-issue from Seven Kitchens Press. Four of the poems have been revised since the chapbook originally came out in 2006, with the title poem being significantly different. I'll keep you posted on pre-sales.

On Wednesday, I'll reveal the title of the new novel right here and there will also be details on buying a Holiday Pack featuring signed copies of Conquering Venus, my chapbook After the Poison and a certificate for the Seven Kitchens reprint of Slow To Burn. Watch this space!

Weekend Music: 'Night Air' - Jamie Woon

I've acquired a taste for silence...

Gobble, gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. Many thanks to all my friends for their support this year. 

NEA love

Cecilia Woloch

Three of my poetry pals have been awarded NEA grants – Sandra Meek, James Allen Hall and my BFF and poetry mentor Cecilia Woloch.

I'm especially pleased for Cecilia, because her poetry never fails to move me. I find myself going back to it again and again. If you haven't read Carpathia or Late, get thee to a bookstore post-haste. Cecilia is one of the most generous poets I know and her critique of my work has made me a better poet.

My hope for all three of these fine poets is that the $25,000 fellowship gives the time to create more beautiful work. What a fantastic holiday gift!

Poetic Asides Interview

Many thanks to poet and blogger Robert Lee Brewer for interviewing me at his Writer's Digest blog, Poetic  Asides. I talk about Twitter, self-publishing, writing poetry and fiction, blogging and more. You can read the entire interview at this link.

I reached a Twitter milestone last night: I have more than 2,000 followers! Small potatoes compared to Ashton Kutcher or Lady Gaga, but I'm excited just the same.

Speaking of Twitter, the Sunday night Poet Party is happening every week at 9 p.m. eastern time hosted by Deborah Ager of 32 Poems journal. We've been having some fun and lively discussion about poetry there each week. Join us tomorrow night by following the hashtag #poetparty.

Here's a tip: If you're not using HootSuite to manage your Twitter account, I highly recommend it. HootSuite allows you to see all your streams on one screen - your main feed, mentions from others, sent tweets and direct messages. You can also create streams based on things you're interested in, like the Poet Party, schedule tweets for the future and manage up to five different Twitter accounts from the same dashboard without having to sign off and in. I couldn't tweet without it.

'Slow To Burn' rekindled

The original version of Slow To Burn.

My chapbook, Slow To Burn, will be reissued by Seven Kitchens Press in July 2011 as part of the ReBound Series. I am, obviously, thrilled. Along with Slow To Burn, Steve Turtell's Letter To Frank O'Hara, Jeffrey Beam's Midwinter Fires and Louis McKee's No Matter will also be released as part of the series. Many thanks to editor/publisher Ron Mohring for making this happen!

A little Slow To Burn history: The chapbook was originally published by MetroMania Press in 2006 as a limited edition of 300 signed and numbered copies. MetroMania publisher Tanya Keyser created a beautiful, unique book with a thick matte black cover, red foil lettering and vellum end papers. All 300 copies were sold in about a year-and-a-half. Slow To Burn remains my favorite book and contains poems like "The Virgin Mary Appears in a Highway Underpass," "Wonder Woman," "The Clarity of Loss" and "What Remains." The title was inspired by the great Vanessa Daou's album of the same name.

The reissue, which will feature a new introduction by my friend and fab poet Karen Head, will also be a limited edition of 125 copies and the design will harken back to the original version. Pre-sales will begin next spring.

Quick Bites

Adele is back with a brilliant new tune, "Rolling in the Deep." It's got a hint of Nina Simone's "See-Line Woman" in there and is just a bluesy, blue-eyed soul affair. Love it!

My interview with fellow author and longtime friend Grant Jerkins is the basis for a review of his novel, A Very Simple Crime, in the Washington Post.

Nic Sebastian, who so beautifully reads my poem "After Adultery" at Whale Sound, interviewed me for her Very Like A Whale Blog about the experience of hearing my poem re-interpreted. Thanks again, Nic!

The title for my second novel will be revealed on Dec. 1 and there will be a link to a short excerpt from the first chapter on Dec. 15.

In Memoriam: Rachel Lisi, 1970-2010

Seven years ago, I met Rachel Lisi online at the Kate Bush Forum. We clicked instantly over our love of music, poetry and art. Although we never met in person, I considered Rachel a friend. Last night, I was stunned to learn that she had died on Wednesday after an illness.

Starting around 2004 or so, Rachel and I spoke daily -- either in the forum or on chat. But we never actually spoke on the phone. We had planned to meet up on several occasions in London, but money and schedules always seemed to get in the way.

Rachel was an unflagging supporter of my writing, offering up frank and constructive criticism when she didn't like it. I was honored when she put the link to my site on her own as a few of the artists and writers she chose to support. 

Rachel was a fantastic photographer and I even toyed with the idea of using one of her photos as the over of Conquering Venus. Her poetry was also quite moving, and her poem "Gravity's Release" appears alongside mine in The Thrill and The Hurting anthology I co-edited with Kyla Clay-Fox in the UK back in 2006. You can see Rachel's work at her website.

It's strange to mourn someone you never actually had a face-to-face conversation with, and yet I feel an immeasurable sadness that I cannot put into words. Rachel lived in the air and wires of the Internet, but because of her sharp wit, her feisty – and sometimes confrontational – debates on the Kate forum and the art she shared with me, she transcended "online friend." 

I send my condolences to Rachel's friends and family around the world. Today would have been Rachel's 40th birthday.

Weekend Report

The Red Clay Writers Conference at Kennesaw State University on Saturday was fantastic. Great speakers and the attendees asked smart questions and bought books. My favorite event was Lauretta Hannon, who talked about her memoir, The Cracker Queen, and offered practical advice on how to write your life story.  It was a good lead in to my talk on confessional writing in fiction and poetry. Many thanks to Cherie and Lisa at Georgia Writers Association for the invitation and Jessica Handler who suggested me.

Sunday was spent working on the sequel to Conquering Venus. I put in four solid hours, mostly editing and rewriting my way out of a corner. I realized I had overly complicated what should have been a fairly straightforward series of events to move the plot to the big reveal – Irène finally catching up with her husband's lover and finding out how Jean-Louis died in 1968. I'm back on track!

My "Venus" Year

Conquering Venus has been out for well over a year now, and I'm wrapping up my active, personal appearance promotions for the book this weekend. I'll still be promoting online and seeking new opportunities to spread the word about Venus, especially since the sequel will be coming in 2011 or 2012 (fingers crossed).

Tomorrow I'm leading a workshop on confessional writing for poets and novelists at the Red Clay Writers Conference at Kennesaw State University. The workshop is called "Writing that Resonates" and I'll be discussing how to mine personal experiences that can be turned into thought-provoking, universally understood poetry and fiction. If you're coming to the conference, please consider sitting in on my workshop.
 
The Lambda Literary article about LGBT books for teens that deal with suicide and bullying has gone viral, being picked up numerous websites and even a couple of print publications. I'm glad that piece is getting some attention.

Now, I turn my attention to completing the first draft of the sequel. I'll be announcing the title and posting a little teaser just before Christmas, so stay tuned for that. I'm also going to do a Conquering Venus giveaway on Goodreads for the holidays and there will be a special Holiday Gift Pack with Venus, After the Poison and the last few copies of the limited edition Slow To Burn in existence. The Gift Pack will will be for sale exclusively here at Modern Confessional. More details coming soon!

Tea and sympathy

The Republicans took back the House last night, but voters at least had the smarts to give two of the craziest Tea Party candidates – Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell and Sharron "Take your rape and turn it into lemonade" Angle – a pass.

The Teabaggers and GOP have yet to offer substantive ideas on how to balance the budget and kick-start the economy. It all sounds great in speeches and at rallies where people are fired up about "taking back America" (although I still don't know who they're taking it back from), but I'm looking for specifics.

The Teabaggers wanted to send a message about throwing out career politicians and lobbyists, yet sent two of the biggest – Dan Coats from Indiana and Rob Portman from Ohio – back to D.C. Makes no damn sense at all.

Meanwhile, Georgia has elected another career politician, Nathan Deal, as its new governor seemingly unconcerned that he forgot to mention he was $4 million in debt on his campaign disclosure forms. If he can't manage his own money, I can't wait to see what he does with state funds. But he had an (R) next to his name, so that's all that matters.

The Republicans have got two years to hang themselves and judging what happened under their last watch, it's going to be a real short rope and an even shorter drop. Maybe they'll have their spending cut ideas in place by the time January rolls around, but I'm not getting my hopes up. All I see is political gridlock ahead.

Hush, hush...keep it down now...

Ayodele Heath

Saturday night was the seventh annual Voices Carry reading presented by Poetry Atlanta. For the second year in a row, we held the reading at Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur owned by the great poet and artist Sylvia Cross. We had a packed house there in 2009, but on Saturday it was literally standing room only. We had to bring in chairs and a bench from outside!

I played host and read new – and relatively new – poems before introducing our stellar line up starting with Natasha Trethewey. The audience was treated to new poems and poems in progress. That's right, folks, we heard 'em first! I'm looking forward to reading her new nonfiction book, Beyond Katrina, which I've heard nothing but good things about.

Many thanks to Tania Rochelle for introducing me to the work of Patrick Donnelly, who read from his collection The Charge, and had the audience laughing with his short, sharp poems. I was really pleased that Ayodele Heath is back on the poetry scene and agreed to read this year. His first collection, Otherness, is out next month and judging by what he read and performed, it's going to be brilliant.

Cecilia Woloch

We closed the evening with Cecilia Woloch reading all love poems from her various collections. Cecilia has the most amazing reading voice. She enunciates beautifully, knows exactly when to pause, to find the spoken rhythm and musicality in her poetry.

Yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove my parents to North Carolina to "look at the leaves," which is code for the Harrah's casino in Cherokee. I watched my parents shovel my inheritance into the slot machines for three hours, drank some nasty punch and was shocked to find they allow people to smoke on the gaming floor. I've never liked casinos, so maybe that's why Las Vegas is just below North Korea on my bucket list. I won $149, but gambled all of it away except $40. Oh, well, at least I came out ahead and my gambling addict mom got her fix.